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Regional Collaborative Planning for Roading & Wood Flow Planning

Collaborative planning by local government and the plantation industry, for the purpose of prioritising and seeking funding for roading investment, is standard practice in some States and regions.

This section gives some examples of where this collaboration is working well.

Timber Towns Victoria

Throughout its history Timber Towns Victoria (TTV) has lobbied both the State and Federal Governments for more equitable funding arrangements for the maintenance of road infrastructure.

TTV undertook the Timber Industry Roading Evaluation Study (TIRES) in 2001, a joint project between local councils, the forestry industry, the community and state government agencies.

TIRES looked at funding requirements for strategic local roads in four key regions of the state.

The study found that improvements to a limited strategic set of local roads, coupled with a cooperative approach to transport planning by industry and local government would ensure access, minimise transport costs and the impacts of current and future harvesting.

Based on the success of TIRES in 2001 TTV released the Local Timber Roads Funding Strategy in November 2005.

Read more about TTV Roading Infrastructure Policy on the TTV website in the Reports and Issues section.

North East Victoria

The Timber Industry Roading and Evaluation Study (TIRES) process started in NE Victoria in1995 with plantation growers and processors working with local government, with the support of the State department for economic development, to develop the first TIRES report.

A TIRES committee was subsequently formed, bringing together plantation owners, processors, state agencies including VicRoads, and local government councillor and officer representatives.

As a result, a collaborative approach was made to government, with a ten year plan of roading development needs under the Better Roads Victoria fund.Timber Towns Victoria followed the lead set by TIRES in the North east of Victoria and ran a statewide TIRES project.

The North East Victoria TIRES committee is still operating and is supported by Plantations North East, the regional Private Forestry Development Committee.

This year the TIRES process is delivering $1.4m to local councils on a $1:$6 formula, with the local government contribution being the $1. About $10M has bee allocated to the region up to 2005.

The North East TIRES committee meets 2 or 3 times per year, to:

The committee reviews and prioritises the applications and all councils are then advised by Vic Roads. Vic Roads NE use the committee process to determine their regional Better Roads Victoria applications, and to advocate for funding from the central administration.

The initial TIRES report has been updated twice, most recently in 2005.

Download Local Roads Funding Strategy Report for North East Victoria (PDF)

Central Victoria

The development of a Woodflow Plan is a Priority Action for the Central Victorian Plantation Region, identified in the Central Victorian Farm Plantations Private Forestry Action Plan.

The report 'A Regional Woodflow Plan for Central Victoria - Desirable Requirements, Content and Development Process' provides an excellent overview of what needs to be addressed by a Regional Woodflow Plan. The general concepts are readily applicable to any region.

This region does not currently have a TIRES committee and relies on the TIRES report prepared by Timber Towns Victoria in 2005, for seeking investment for funding of local roads.

Download Local Roads Funding Strategy Report for Central West Victoria (PDF)

Download ‘A Regional Woodflow Plan for Central Victoria - Desirable Requirements, Content and Development Process’ (PDF)

Gippsland

The Gippsland Region of Victoria has a TIRES Committee and also uses the Gippsland TIRES report as a basis for seeking investment for funding of local roads.

Download Local Roads Funding Strategy Report for Gippsland (PDF)

Green Triangle (Victoria - S.A border)

The Green Triangle Timber Roads Committee has been formed under the auspices of the Green Triangle Regional Plantation Committee (GTRPC).

The committee is comprised of:

The primary focus has been to develop regional priorities for submissions by individual councils to VicRoads to access State Impacted Local Timber Roads funding. The Victorian allocation is about $7 million annually. As the pine industry was very successful in getting funds in earlier years the emphasis has been on evaluating roads and preferred haulage routes for the coming Blue Gum harvest.

The roads under consideration are those non-classified roads for which the local Councils are responsible. They exclude the A, B and C class roads which are variously funded by State and Federal sources.

The Committee met for the first time in April 2006 and with another 3 meetings, were able to prioritise 15 road/bridge projects for the region. This required agreement by Councils on a regional basis. Each Council then made its own submission to VicRoads using the GT Timber Roads priorities for 2007/08 funding.

While the growers were not necessarily in a position to provide annual wood flow tonnages for particular roads, the parties were happy to use the 2004 Wood Flow data held by SERIC.

The GTRPC is an invited member of the Rural South West Transport Group which produced a South West Regional Transport Plan in 2006. This plan identified the key land transport network demands and subsequent impacts on the transport network and to develop a number of strategies to ensure provision of accessible, safe and environmentally sound transport infrastructure to support the vital economic growth of the region. The emphasis was integrated across industry sectors. The GTRPC and SERIC provided supporting data on wood flows.

Again regional priorities were established by the participating Councils and subsequently they made applications for AusLink funding. One AusLink project that was supported by the GTRPC and which received funding was the Chaffeys Lane upgrade and northern bypass around Mt Gambier which was allocated $525,000 from AusLink in December 2006.

Download: TTV Local Roads Funding Strategy South West Victoria (PDF)

Download Brochure: Future Woodflows Across the Green Triangle Region (PDF)

Central West NSW

As a result of the infrastructure component of the Plantations and Reafforestation Act, the NSW Dept of State and Regional Development (DSRD) convened the Macquarie Region Logging Infrastructure Committee.

This committee comprised all relevant local governments, representatives of the major timber processors, private forest owners and State Forests and was chaired by the Director of Engineering of one of the lcoal government councils.

The committee commissioned two studies:

  1. Definition of the infrastructure network and preparation of a costing for its upgrade, and
  2. A study of four forests in the region forecasting the wood flow for the next 2 rotations (70 years) and modelling of the impact of harvesting on transport and roading infrasturucture, to enable deterimination of a cost per tonne of product/ km.

For more information about the results of these studies, contact regional Private Forestry Development Committee EO: Allan Wilson

North East NSW

Under the NSW P & R Act an Infrastructure Committee, comprising representatives of local government and forest industries, was established in North East NSW in 2001.

This committee commissioned 'Baseline Reports' on the Timber Industry in both the Upper and Lower North Coast regions of NSW that provide an anlaysis of the forestry estate and the timber haulage networks.

For more information contact Northern Rivers Private Forestry.

South West Western Australia

A TIRES Committee, comprising local government and forestry industry members operates for the South West Region of W.A. as part of the South West Regional Road Group.

The Committee develops an annual program of prioritized road works for Main Roads WA and the Regional Road Group. The allocation of funding is determined on the basis of tonnage of timber shipped and road need.

The State Funds to Local Government Advisory Committee has recommended to the Minister that the TIRES program be continued through to at least 2007/08. The South West Regional Road Group will be planning on the basis of funding continuing at the same level for the next 3 years.

Great Southern Region Western Australia

The Great Southern Region TIRES Committee, comprising local government, plantation industry and the department of Main Roads, under the leadership of the Great Southern Regional Development Board, covers the timber production area in the four local government areas in the southern portion of the region:

With forecast movements of 2.5 million tonnes of forest produce per annum over the local roads, the TIRES committee has prepared reports and, in December 2004, a Five Year Regional Transport Plan.

The plan has been prepared for local government and the timber industry and comprises the following key elements:

The Great Southern Regional Infrastructure Plan 2006 submission to the State Infrastructure Strategy has used the Five Year Regional Transport Plan as a basis for part of its planning.

Download Great Southern TIRES Group Five Year Regional Transport Plan (PDF)

Download Great Southern Regional Infrastructure Plan 2006 (PDF)

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